PESA Video Distribution System Supports International Space Station

HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — PESA has completed a video routing system upgrade to NASA’s Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Lockheed Martin commissioned PESA to provide hardware and system training for its Cheetah Video Distribution System.

Mission Control supports 24/7 operations for the International Space Station and its partners, which include NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency and payload oversight from the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

With an IP-based PERC2000 system controller paired with Cattrax Web, PESA’s browser-based router control software, NASA’s technical team can securely configure input and output sources specific to user or mission requirements, limiting access to only those video sources and destinations for which the user has authorization when required.

PESA’s hybrid video hardware system also supports both fiber optics and coaxial sources from a variety of broadcast and computer signal formats. Using Vidblox extender/scaler units, every SDI, VGA and DVI video source is fed through the router and securely distributed to the desired display or recording system.

The VDS hardware is based on a Cheetah 288XR frame that enables NASA to route 288 input sources to 432 workstations and display screens. PESA’s Cheetah routing switchers have been certified under the Department of Defense Joint Interoperability Test Command, and comply with the new JITC VDS specifications.